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Kristine Boone
UWRT-1104
Thomas Section-017
28 October 2018

Synthesis of Research

My Inquiry Proposal discusses the effects of caffeine within comprehension

levels of college students. Throughout this research, I searched for voices that were

able to relate to each other within this topic. All of my sources used a various groups of

individuals who ranged from middle to late age, different sex, and other factors that may

contribute to assorted end results. They provide reliable information and evidence

concerning the positive and negative effects of caffeine, why it is more accepted in

society as opposed to illicit drugs such as adderall.

“Caffeine, Mood, and Mental Performance in Everyday Life” was written by

Professor Peter Rogers, Chartered Psychologist, Fellow of the British Psychological

Society, and Registered Nutritionist. In 1983, he completed a PhD on eating behaviour

at the University of Leeds. Professor Rogers concluded that right now, researches are

incapable of performing a full risk assessment on all the potential health effects of

dietary caffeine. This includes all of both physical and mental side effects. However, in

regards to comprehension levels, little to no benefit is actually gained from regular

consumption. Studies prove that withdrawal of caffeine lowers alertness and mood.

While consumption may reverse these effects, it does not legitimately boost functioning

to above ‘normal’ levels.

Another article that connected with Peter Rogers’ perspective of caffeine and

mental performance, was “The Influence of Exercise and Caffeine on Cognitive

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Function in College Students” by Rachel J. Shulder, Eric E. Hall, and Paul C. Miller. The

authors work at Elon University and are Professors of Exercise science. Professor Hall

holds a PhD in biology while Paul C.Miller holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and

master of education. I was unable to source further accomplishments of Rachel J.

Shulder. The article belongs to the Special Issue on Sports and Health, and lists the

positive effects of caffeine relating to multiple aspects of cognition. These aspects

include: vigilance, mental alertness, visual selective attention, task switching, conflict

monitoring, and response inhibition. The tests were performed under time limits of five

and twenty minutes after exercise or quiet reading. Alike to the following articles, this

study was limited by multiple variables including population and executive function.

However, the dissimilarity involves how exercise was included in the test. Although this

source is dissimilar to the other articles by the addition of exercise, it still relates to

college student by the way they walk, ride bicycles, skateboard, etc. to get to their

destination. This article connected with “Caffeine, Mood, and Mental Performance in

Everyday Life” in which researchers compared examined effects of caffeine

consumption and aerobic exercise and found no differences in reaction time between

groups. In other words, the outcomes clarified that not all areas of comprehension were

significantly increased or effected. There was more of a significant improvement in

inhibition and improvements in working memory and goal directed behavior. Otherwise,

not many effects proved beneficial to comprehension.

David M. Penetar of McLean Hospital, Cambridge carries a PhD and conveys

expertise in Behavioural Science and Experimental Psychology. He performs studies

and research which particularly focuses on psychology and performance. Effects of

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Caffeine on Cognitive Performance, Mood, and Alertness in Sleep- Deprived Humans is

a journal published by Penetar which informs readers about testing the performance,

accuracy, speed, and throughput measures of non-smoking, healthy individuals who

obtained caffeine. The voice of this journal agrees that caffeine does provide significant

effects on performance and comprehension. It states that caffeine is effective by

reversing performance degradations and alterations in mood and alertness. On the

other hand, “Effects of Caffeine, Time of Day User History on Study- Related

Performance” by Paula J. Mitchell and Jenifer R. Redman is about individual and

interactive effects of caffeine. This article differs from Pentar’s journal by the way that

performance was measured on short-term memory, mental arithmetic, reading

comprehension, serial search, and verbal reasoning. Additionally, participants of their

tests were assigned to a low to moderate, or high user group. Their assignment was

based on the results of their caffeine consumption questionnaire. The article connects to

the journal by house it’s voice approves the idea that effects of caffeine does improve

performance and interactions. Alike to all the previous articles and journal, it shares that

factors can determine variable results. The authors of this article were Paula Mitchell,

who holds a PhD in zoology and B.A. in biology. Jenifer R. Redman, Faculty of

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, also carries a PhD.

What Users Think about the Differences between Caffeine and Illicit/ Prescription

Stimulants for Cognitive Enhancement edited by Michael Taffe is a journal about the

effects of caffeine for cognitive enhancement and difference in moral between the use

of caffeine and illicit stimulants. Michael Taffe, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor,
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Postdoctoral Fellow, works in the Department of Neuroscience on California Campus.

He holds a B.A., M.A, and PhD in Psychology. Similar to the previous articles and

journals, it test the results of caffeine effects in comprehension levels. However, this

voice disagrees with the idea that caffeine effects provide significant cognitive

enhancement. Additionally, participants were asked about the difference in moral, and

55.6% of them answered that there is no difference. It was only agreed that stimulants

had different effects on different people, and physical long-term damage.

I created a survey of questions concerning the effects of caffeine while including

variables that related to its effects. 14 people did respond. From my survey, majority of

participants stated that they consume caffeine approximately 2-3 times per week for no

particular reason. The most commonly consumed caffeinated product was soda. 42.9%

of participants believed that caffeine did not significantly increase their comprehension

skills/ concentration. 35.7% believed there was a possibility of its effects within the

increase of comprehension, and 14.3% agreed that it did. One response shared that it

depended on the time of consumption. I found this response interesting because one of

my sources did test for caffeine effects during different times of the day. Something else

that stuck out to me in the results was that 57.1% of the responses believed that there is

a contrast in social morale between the consumption of Adderall and caffeine. Only

35.7% believed there wasn’t a difference in morale and 7.1% was unsure. My results

differed from the ones in Michael Taffe’s journal.

Work Cited
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Rogers, Peter J. “Caffeine, mood and mental performance in everyday life”

Wiley, 2007, vol. 32, issue s1, Nutrition Bulletin, UK.

Lieb, Klaus. Hildt, Elisabeth. “What Users Think about the Differences between

Caffeine and Illicit/ Prescription Stimulants for Cognitive Enhancement” Plos one vol.

7,6 (2012): e40047

Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Military Nutrition Research. “Food

Components to Enhance Performance: An Evaluation of Potential Performance-

Enhancing Food Components for Operational Rations” National Academies Press (US),

1994, Washington (DC)

Shulder, Rachel. Hall, Eric. Miller, Paul. “The Influence of Exercise and Caffeine

on Cognitive Function in College Students” SciRes, 2015, pp,156-162. Health, 2016.

Mitchell, Paula. Redman, Jennifer. “Effects of caffeine, time of day and user

history on study-related performance” Psychopharmacology, 1992, vol. 109, number 1-

2, pp. 121. Springer.